Luigi Aletto

Luigi Aletto’s practice focuses on trademark, trade dress, copyright, false advertising, and Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolutions (UDRP) disputes. Whether helping to create and enforce brand protection strategies, or defend against intellectual property challenges, Luigi has assisted clients across the telecommunications, food and beverage, apparel and footwear, healthcare, financial services, and higher education industries, at both the U.S. District Court level, and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.

At the George Washington University Law School, Luigi graduated with honors and obtained his Juris Doctor with a concentration in intellectual property law. Additionally, he served on the Federal Circuit Bar Journal and served as a judicial intern for Chief Judge Clark S. Cheney at the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Hyunsung Joo

Hyunsung Joo, Ph.D., is a registered Patent Attorney. He earned his Ph.D. based on his research in the analysis of various structures and devices using finite element analysis and computer-related technology. He is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and is a member of the District of Columbia Bar.

Prior to becoming an attorney, Dr. Joo focused his research on a wide range of areas, from advanced technology to industrial policy development. He also contributed to engineering practice across multiple sectors and lectured on engineering subjects at several universities.

Thomas (TJ) Gohn

TJ focuses his practice on intellectual property litigation and has represented clients in patent, copyright, and trademark disputes. His experience spans a variety of industries and technologies, including electronics, two-factor authentication, computer rendering, and data and signal processing.

Before joining Maier and Maier, TJ litigated intellectual property cases defending against non-practicing entities and provided IP counsel for mergers and acquisitions. He also practiced in the Middle East litigating international regulatory and diplomatic disputes.

TJ is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Experience:

  • Defense of national banks in the Eastern District of Texas relating to claims of infringement of two-factor authentication patent; obtained favorable settlement.
  • Assertion of valve and pump technology patents for oil and gas company in the Northern District of Texas; case resulted in favorable settlement.
  • Defense of large hospitality company in the Eastern District of Texas relating to claims of infringement of patents for website suggested search technology; obtained favorable settlement.
  • Assertion of trademark claims for bespoke software developer in District of Massachusetts; case resulted in favorable settlement for client with defendant agreeing to change name.
  • Defense of major western wear client against right of publicity claim in Eastern District of Arkansas; resulted in favorable settlement.
  • Defense of prolific marketing analytics company; obtained favorable settlement of patent infringement claims brought in the Eastern District of Texas.
  • Defense of one of the world’s largest computer manufacturers; obtained settlement of patent infringement claims brought in the International Trade Commission.
  • Defense of marketing firm in copyright infringement case; obtained favorable settlement.
  • Pro Bono representation of veteran in consumer protection lawsuit brought in Texas state court. Case resulted in favorable settlement with defendant agreeing to pay all client damages.

Kazuyuki Nakai

Kazuyuki Nakai is a highly experienced Japanese Patent Attorney and intellectual property specialist. Mr. Nakai’s experience includes all aspects of intellectual property law, including patent and trademark portfolio management.  Prior to joining Maier & Maier, Mr. Nakai served as in-house counsel and intellectual property manager for a multi-national corporation. In his prior roles, Mr. Nakai has been in charge of administration of patent and trademark rights, developing strong intellectual property positions, soliciting new inventions for protection and commercialization, intellectual property training and coordination with engineers and business units, as well as preparing intellectual property related reports, opinions, and searches. Before entering the intellectual property field, Mr. Nakai worked as a sound engineer in the United States and Japan.

Mr. Nakai is a Japanese Patent Attorney and he obtained his Bachelor of Economics degree from Chuo University in Tokyo, Japan.

Kathleen Cooney-Porter

Ms. Cooney-Porter has practiced Trademark law for almost 30 years. Most recently, she worked as a consultant providing expert advice on trademark prosecution, trademark evaluation, trademark branding, and managing outside counsel for a California-based start-up.

Prior to her position as a consultant, she was appointed as Senior Trademark Advisor to the Office of the Under Secretary and Director of The United States Patent and Trademark Office.  While serving in this role, she participated in the Under Secretary’s external and internal meetings on a regular and recurring basis ensuring that the views of the Under Secretary were communicated in an accurate, consistent, and professional manner. She also partnered with USPTO Business Units to ensure Under Secretary’s vision and goals were considered when creating and implementing trademark programs and policies and built alliances and consensus by sharing knowledge and responding to, addressing, and elevating high level concerns promptly. Ms. Cooney-Porter also worked with Department of Commerce, other Administration agencies and Congress to ensure that all groups were notified timely and provided accurate pre-briefs, as necessary, concerning any significant agency announcements. She reviewed Solicitor’ s briefs prior to filing with Federal Circuit and consulted with Solicitor’s Office and Department of Justice on two significant Supreme Court cases. She reviewed all documents pertaining to any trademark matter including but not limited to operations, examination, trademark rules of practice, legal briefs, and memoranda for final review by the Under Secretary. She assisted Trademark Operations on several anti-counterfeiting efforts and policies including negotiations with the National Crime Prevention Council on a 5-year joint project to educate the public of dangers of counterfeits. Contract signed Fall 2020. She attended the Office of Policy and International Affairs (OPIA) round table with other government officials on anti-counterfeiting efforts and policies.

Prior to her position at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, she was a Principal at Muncy, Geissler, Olds & Lowe, P.C., since 2016, advising clients on how to enhance, secure, leverage and enforce their marks and brand portfolio, and as a Managing Partner at Oblon, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt, P.C., where she managed the Trademark and Copyright practice groups and represented clients before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB).

During her tenure in private practice, Ms. Cooney-Porter served a three-year term as an appointee to the USPTO’s Trademark Public Advisory Committee (TPAC) where she advised the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and the Director of the USPTO on matters relating to trademark policies, goals, performance, budget and user fees.

Prior to working in private practice, Ms. Cooney-Porter worked as a Trademark Examining Attorney for over eight years.

Ms. Cooney-Porter has a Bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and a J.D. from the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law. She resides in McLean, Virginia with her husband and twin teenage daughters.

Max Kaganov

Max Kaganov is a registered patent attorney and practices all aspects of intellectual property law, including utility patent and design patent drafting and prosecution, freedom-to-operate and infringement opinions, and trademark prosecution, oppositions, and cancellations. Max’s utility patent experience spans a variety of arts, such as mechanical engineering, medical devices, RFID devices and the manufacture thereof, wind turbines, as well as batch production, electrical, and software technologies. A particular focus of Max’s practice is the drafting and prosecution of design patents.

Max received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College, where he majored in chemistry with a focus on physical chemistry and materials science. He obtained his Juris Doctor, in the patent law specialty track, from George Mason University School of Law. A native speaker of Russian and proficient in Spanish, Max has obtained  patent protection in the United States for Eastern European and Latin American clients. Max is registered to practice before the US Patent and Trademark Office, the Virginia State Bar, and the Florida Bar.

Max Kaganov

Max Kaganov is the Office Representative for our Miami office.  Mr. Kaganov is a registered patent attorney and practices all aspects of intellectual property law, including utility patent and design patent drafting and prosecution, freedom-to-operate and infringement opinions, and trademark prosecution, oppositions, and cancellations. Max’s utility patent experience spans a variety of arts, such as mechanical engineering, medical devices, RFID devices and the manufacture thereof, wind turbines, as well as batch production, electrical, and software technologies. A particular focus of Max’s practice is the drafting and prosecution of design patents.

Max received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College, where he majored in chemistry with a focus on physical chemistry and materials science. He obtained his Juris Doctor, in the patent law specialty track, from George Mason University School of Law. A native speaker of Russian and proficient in Spanish, Max has obtained  patent protection in the United States for Eastern European and Latin American clients. Max is registered to practice before the US Patent and Trademark Office, the Virginia State Bar, and the Florida Bar.

Michael J. Collins

Michael Collins has twenty-nine years of experience litigating patent, trade secret, unfair competition and other technology-related matters. In recent years, his practice has concentrated on patent litigation, representing both patent owners and defendants in federal district courts throughout the country. He has also represented clients in post-grant proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, Section 337 investigations before the International Trade Commission and appeals before the Federal Circuit. In addition to patent litigation, Michael has substantial experience representing both plaintiffs and defendants in trade secret matters in the state courts of both Texas and Florida. He was named a “Texas Super Lawyer” in the area of Intellectual Property Litigation in each of the years from 2013 through 2018.

Michael has handled cases involving a wide range of technologies, including semiconductors, oil and gas production, materials science, software, consumer electronics, wireless telecommunications systems, LED display panels, vehicle location tracking, optics, building structures, medical devices, food processing, transportation, conventional and nuclear power, petrochemicals, industrial valves, combined cycle gas turbines, petrochemical catalyst handling methods, corrugated packaging, and flywheel energy storage systems.

Dennis Ahearn

Dennis Ahearn is senior counsel for Maier and Maier.  Previously, Dennis was IP and Technology Law Counsel at Science Applications International Corporation (“SAIC”), Associate General Counsel for Intellectual Property and Technology Law at Lockheed Martin Corporation, and Chief IP Counsel at COMSAT Corporation.  Dennis has a wealth of experience in procuring, managing and enforcing intellectual property rights globally for these and other corporations in major technical areas, and in data rights in Government Contracts, Government cyber-security requirements, IP rights in mergers and acquisitions and other transactions, Open Source Software acquisition, usage and licensing, trademark portfolio development and management, internet usage, and litigation management.  Additionally, Dennis is highly experienced in providing IP development, protection, usage, licensing, sale, and other monetization counsel.  His areas of interest include aerospace and defense, advanced telecommunications, commercial space activities, artificial intelligence and robotics, alternative energy, and internet activities and cyber-security. Dennis received his Bachelor’s Degree in Physics from Yale, completed his J.D. at the University of San Francisco and served in the U. S. Air Force before beginning his law career.

Timothy J. Maier

Mr. Maier is a registered Patent Attorney and practices all aspects of Intellectual Property Law. Mr. Maier’s practice includes patent preparation and prosecution; patent and trademark litigation; design patents, trademark oppositions, patent reissue and reexamination proceedings; interference practice; strategic domestic and international patent and trademark portfolio development and management; patentability, validity, invalidity, infringement, freedom to operate, design around opinions and counseling, patent portfolio landscape analysis and due diligence opinions. Mr. Maier’s technical expertise includes various aspects of electrical engineering, electro-mechanical, mechanical, industrial, wireless technology, software enabled systems, financial systems and telecommunication engineering. Mr. Maier has serviced clients in highly competitive technical areas, including, medical devices, RFID technology, financial products, telecommunications, consumer electronics, cosmetic devices, packaging, semiconductors, e-commerce software, optics, and business methods.

Mr. Maier’s experience and expertise most recently has focused on providing a range of patent services to clients and developing patent strategies that complement the client’s business objectives. In particular, he enjoys developing and managing patent portfolios for the world market, for both start-up, middle market and Fortune 500 companies. To this end, he also analyzes competitors’ patent portfolios and products to counsel clients regarding enhancement and enforcement of their patent portfolio, potential investment of contemplated products, strategic design-around, and acquisition of technology.

Prior to founding Maier & Maier PLLC , Mr. Maier was formerly an attorney with Oblon, Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C. .

Mr. Maier received his Bachelor of Science from Vanderbilt University and Masters in Telecommunications Engineering from George Mason University School of Engineering and his Law degree from George Mason University School of Law. Mr. Maier completed the Intellectual Property Law sequence while attending George Mason University School of Law, an intense concentration in intellectual property law.

Mr. Maier is licensed to practice before the United States Patent Office, Supreme Court of Virginia, Eastern District Court of Virginia, and the Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. He is a member of the Virginia State Bar (VSB), American Bar Association (ABA Patents, Trademarks and Copyright Divisions), Licensing Executives Society (LES), Association Internationale pour la Protection de la Propriété Intellectuelle (AIPPI, published articles) and American Intellectual Property Association (AIPLA, elected to two year committee term).

Currently Mr. Maier is a faculty member with Patent Resource Group, providing lectures around the United States to broad audiences on patent prosecution and enforcement in Asian countries, including Japan, Korea and China. and is an author for www.postgrant.com , a leading intellectual property law blog .

Mr. Maier was recently included in the 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® for Patent Law.